Win32 - Select Directory Dialog from C/C++ - c++

How to select an existing folder (or create new) from a native Win32 application?
Here is a similar question. It has a good answer for C#/.NET. But I want the same thing for native Win32.
Anybody knows a solution, free code, etc?
Update:
I tried the function from the answer. Everything worked as expected, except it is necessary to call the SHGetPathFromIDList function to retrieve the name of selected directory. Here is a sample screen shot:

SHBrowseForFolder
Do your users a favor, and set at least the BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE flag.
To set the initial folder, add the following code:
static int CALLBACK BrowseFolderCallback(
HWND hwnd, UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
if (uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED) {
LPCTSTR path = reinterpret_cast<LPCTSTR>(lpData);
::SendMessage(hwnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, true, (LPARAM) path);
}
return 0;
}
// ...
BROWSEINFO binf = { 0 };
...
binf.lParam = reinterpret_cast<LPARAM>(initial_path_as_lpctstr);
binf.lpfn = BrowseFolderCallback;
...
and provide a suitable path (such as remembering the last selection, your applications data folder, or similar)

Just as a go to for future users, this article helped me a lot with getting a directory dialog in C++
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/2604/Browse-Folder-dialog-search-folder-and-all-sub-fol
Here is my code (heavily based/taken on the article)
NOTE: You should be able to copy/paste this into a file / compile it (g++, see VS in ninja edit below) and it'll work.
#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <shlobj.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
static int CALLBACK BrowseCallbackProc(HWND hwnd,UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
if(uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED)
{
std::string tmp = (const char *) lpData;
std::cout << "path: " << tmp << std::endl;
SendMessage(hwnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, TRUE, lpData);
}
return 0;
}
std::string BrowseFolder(std::string saved_path)
{
TCHAR path[MAX_PATH];
const char * path_param = saved_path.c_str();
BROWSEINFO bi = { 0 };
bi.lpszTitle = ("Browse for folder...");
bi.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS | BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE;
bi.lpfn = BrowseCallbackProc;
bi.lParam = (LPARAM) path_param;
LPITEMIDLIST pidl = SHBrowseForFolder ( &bi );
if ( pidl != 0 )
{
//get the name of the folder and put it in path
SHGetPathFromIDList ( pidl, path );
//free memory used
IMalloc * imalloc = 0;
if ( SUCCEEDED( SHGetMalloc ( &imalloc )) )
{
imalloc->Free ( pidl );
imalloc->Release ( );
}
return path;
}
return "";
}
int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
{
std::string path = BrowseFolder(argv[1]);
std::cout << path << std::endl;
return 0;
}
EDIT: I've updated the code to show people how to remember the last selected path and use that.
Also, for VS, using Unicode character set. replace this line:
const char * path_param = saved_path.c_str();
With this:
std::wstring wsaved_path(saved_path.begin(),saved_path.end());
const wchar_t * path_param = wsaved_path.c_str();
My Test code above is compiled with g++, but doing this fixed it in VS for me.

For Windows Vista and above, it's best to use IFileOpenDialog with the FOS_PICKFOLDERS option for a proper open dialog rather than this tree dialog. See Common Item Dialog on MSDN for more details.

Related

C++ Can someone show me how to create a select folder dialog with the Windows API GUi [duplicate]

How to select an existing folder (or create new) from a native Win32 application?
Here is a similar question. It has a good answer for C#/.NET. But I want the same thing for native Win32.
Anybody knows a solution, free code, etc?
Update:
I tried the function from the answer. Everything worked as expected, except it is necessary to call the SHGetPathFromIDList function to retrieve the name of selected directory. Here is a sample screen shot:
SHBrowseForFolder
Do your users a favor, and set at least the BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE flag.
To set the initial folder, add the following code:
static int CALLBACK BrowseFolderCallback(
HWND hwnd, UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
if (uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED) {
LPCTSTR path = reinterpret_cast<LPCTSTR>(lpData);
::SendMessage(hwnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, true, (LPARAM) path);
}
return 0;
}
// ...
BROWSEINFO binf = { 0 };
...
binf.lParam = reinterpret_cast<LPARAM>(initial_path_as_lpctstr);
binf.lpfn = BrowseFolderCallback;
...
and provide a suitable path (such as remembering the last selection, your applications data folder, or similar)
Just as a go to for future users, this article helped me a lot with getting a directory dialog in C++
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/2604/Browse-Folder-dialog-search-folder-and-all-sub-fol
Here is my code (heavily based/taken on the article)
NOTE: You should be able to copy/paste this into a file / compile it (g++, see VS in ninja edit below) and it'll work.
#include <windows.h>
#include <string>
#include <shlobj.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <sstream>
static int CALLBACK BrowseCallbackProc(HWND hwnd,UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
if(uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED)
{
std::string tmp = (const char *) lpData;
std::cout << "path: " << tmp << std::endl;
SendMessage(hwnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, TRUE, lpData);
}
return 0;
}
std::string BrowseFolder(std::string saved_path)
{
TCHAR path[MAX_PATH];
const char * path_param = saved_path.c_str();
BROWSEINFO bi = { 0 };
bi.lpszTitle = ("Browse for folder...");
bi.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS | BIF_NEWDIALOGSTYLE;
bi.lpfn = BrowseCallbackProc;
bi.lParam = (LPARAM) path_param;
LPITEMIDLIST pidl = SHBrowseForFolder ( &bi );
if ( pidl != 0 )
{
//get the name of the folder and put it in path
SHGetPathFromIDList ( pidl, path );
//free memory used
IMalloc * imalloc = 0;
if ( SUCCEEDED( SHGetMalloc ( &imalloc )) )
{
imalloc->Free ( pidl );
imalloc->Release ( );
}
return path;
}
return "";
}
int main(int argc, const char *argv[])
{
std::string path = BrowseFolder(argv[1]);
std::cout << path << std::endl;
return 0;
}
EDIT: I've updated the code to show people how to remember the last selected path and use that.
Also, for VS, using Unicode character set. replace this line:
const char * path_param = saved_path.c_str();
With this:
std::wstring wsaved_path(saved_path.begin(),saved_path.end());
const wchar_t * path_param = wsaved_path.c_str();
My Test code above is compiled with g++, but doing this fixed it in VS for me.
For Windows Vista and above, it's best to use IFileOpenDialog with the FOS_PICKFOLDERS option for a proper open dialog rather than this tree dialog. See Common Item Dialog on MSDN for more details.

PKEY_EdgeGesture_DisableTouchWhenFullscreen undeclared identifier

This is with a vs2010 MFC Dialog Application. Besides the below code I've also tried including the following libs, ehstorguids.lib Uuid.Lib. The end result I'm aiming for is to kill the windows 8 Charms Bar. What am I missing to cause this undeclared identifier.
#include "stdafx.h"
#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <propsys.h>
#include <propkey.h>
using namespace std;
HRESULT SetTouchDisableProperty(HWND hwnd, BOOL fDisableTouch)
{
IPropertyStore* pPropStore;
HRESULT hrReturnValue = SHGetPropertyStoreForWindow(hwnd, IID_PPV_ARGS(&pPropStore));
if (SUCCEEDED(hrReturnValue))
{
PROPVARIANT var;
var.vt = VT_BOOL;
var.boolVal = fDisableTouch ? VARIANT_TRUE : VARIANT_FALSE;
hrReturnValue = pPropStore->SetValue(PKEY_EdgeGesture_DisableTouchWhenFullscreen, var);
pPropStore->Release();
}
return hrReturnValue;
}
BOOL CALLBACK MyEnumProc(HWND hWnd, LPARAM lParam)
{
TCHAR title[500];
ZeroMemory(title, sizeof(title));
GetWindowText(hWnd, title, sizeof(title)/sizeof(title[0]));
if (!_tcscmp(title, _T("helloworld")))
{
SetTouchDisableProperty(hWnd,true);
}
return TRUE;
}
void mymfcdialog::ObBnClickedOk()
{
EnumWindows(MyEnumProc, 0);
}
Windows 8 SDK is required for declaration even though VS was not complaining about the libs which are required per MSDN which where included.
This method of hiding/disabling Charms only works with desktop apps when they are full screen and have a title bar. So in my case, this would not working. Killing the 'explorer' process when no charms bar/gestures are desired and then relaunching the explorer process is the only option. If MS reads this, you really should look around, this should not be required to hide/disable Charms/Gestures. But then again, look at windows at Windows 8...I mean 8.1....Still haven't got it right.
Your original code doesn't look wrong to me. In fact, there are working examples of this online.
The best I found was https://github.com/Kuqd/DisableCharmBar, which demonstrates a working example.
The limitation regarding the window title bar, which you mention in your own answer, might be related to your GetWindowText checks. The example from Kuqd works without having a title bar.
I'm using this in my code, i hope it can help you:
static Guid DISABLE_TOUCH_SCREEN = new Guid("32CE38B2-2C9A-41B1-9BC5-B3784394AA44"), // PKEY_EdgeGesture_DisableTouchWhenFullscreen
IID_PROPERTY_STORE = new Guid("886d8eeb-8cf2-4446-8d02-cdba1dbdcf99"); // PropertyStore
static short VT_BOOL = 11;
private const int GC_ALLGESTURES = 0x00000001;
public static void DisableEdgeGestures(IntPtr hwnd)
{
win32.IPropertyStore pPropStore = null;
int hr = 0;
hr = win32.SHGetPropertyStoreForWindow(hwnd, ref IID_PROPERTY_STORE, out pPropStore);
if (hr == 0)
{
win32.PropertyKey propKey = new win32.PropertyKey();
propKey.fmtid = DISABLE_TOUCH_SCREEN;
propKey.pid = 2;
win32.PropVariant var = new win32.PropVariant();
var.vt = VT_BOOL;
var.boolVal = true;
pPropStore.SetValue(ref propKey, ref var);
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(pPropStore);
}
}

Show a list of applications like alt-tab in Win7

I am trying to print a list of running applications like alt-tab would give me. Here are what I have done so far:
1.In the beginning I tried EnumWindows, but I got hundreds of entries.
2.I found some similar questions and they led me to the blog of Raymond Chen.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2007/10/08/5351207.aspx
However it still shows more than 100 windows(window_num1 being 158 and window_num2 being 329), while alt-tab would give me only 4. What did I do wrong? Here is my code:
#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#pragma comment(lib, "user32.lib")
HWND windowHandle;
int window_num1=0;
int window_num2=0;
BOOL IsAltTabWindow(HWND hwnd)
{
if (hwnd == GetShellWindow()) //Desktop
return false;
// Start at the root owner
HWND hwndWalk = GetAncestor(hwnd, GA_ROOTOWNER);
// See if we are the last active visible popup
HWND hwndTry;
while ((hwndTry = GetLastActivePopup(hwndWalk)) != hwndTry)
{
if (IsWindowVisible(hwndTry))
break;
hwndWalk = hwndTry;
}
return hwndWalk == hwnd;
}
BOOL CALLBACK MyEnumProc(HWND hWnd, LPARAM lParam)
{
TCHAR title[500];
ZeroMemory(title, sizeof(title));
//string strTitle;
GetWindowText(hWnd, title, sizeof(title)/sizeof(title[0]));
if (IsAltTabWindow(hWnd))
{
_tprintf(_T("Value is %s\n"), title);
window_num1++;
}
window_num2++;
//strTitle += title; // Convert to std::string
if(_tcsstr(title, _T("Excel")))
{
windowHandle = hWnd;
return FALSE;
}
return TRUE;
}
void MyFunc(void) //(called by main)
{
EnumWindows(MyEnumProc, 0);
}
int main()
{
MyFunc();
cout<<endl<<window_num1<<endl<<window_num2;
return 0;
}
You failure is, that you should walk only visible windows... read the blog again.
For each visible window, walk up its owner chain until you find
the root owner. Then walk back down the visible last active popup
chain until you find a visible window. If you're back to where you're
started, then put the window in the Alt+↹Tab list.
Your code walks over every window!
Just use IsWindowVisible
BOOL CALLBACK MyEnumProc(HWND hWnd, LPARAM lParam)
{
TCHAR title[256] = {0,};
if (IsWindowVisible(hWnd) && GetWindowTextLength(hWnd) > 0)
{
window_num1++;
GetWindowText(hWnd, title, _countof(title));
_tprintf(_T("Value is %d, %s\n"), window_num1, title);
}
return TRUE;
}

Prompting a user with an input box? [C++]

My goal is to simply use a pop-up box to ask the user for an input. I've searched around quite a bit and pretty much all the results say that creating a messageBox is really easy:
MessageBox (NULL, "Hello World" , "Hello", MB_OKCANCEL);
But that creating a pop-up that takes input is more involved and there isn't a straight forward way to do it. All of the results I could find on Google were dated somewhere from 2001 to 2005. I guess I'm here asking if some more straight forward solution has come about in recent years.
Hopefully something nice and straight forward like in Java:
int number = JOptionPane.showInputDialog ("Enter an integer");
If that isn't the case, could I get a brief explanation of how to do it?
Edit: I couldn't get anything to work. :( I ended up writing the code to do the work in Java, and then wrote one line of C++ code to call the .jar file. :-/ Since the issue was time sensitive, it was better than nothing.
If you are using Visual C++ Express there are a number of free resource editors that can be used to create dialogs. ResEdit is one of the better ones I've found.
You need to create a dialog resource in a .RC file that you add to your project.
Then, It is a very simple case of calling DialogBox - which will load the dialog box from your resource file and place it on the screen. The passed in DialogProc will be called with a number of notifications. Typically you would want to return FALSE for everything, but handle WM_INITDIALOG as a place to initialize the edit control with text, and WM_COMMAND will be sent when a button is clicked.
There is nothing like that for pure C++. Basically what you're trying to do can only be achieved by using an API call to the OS or by using some GUI library like Qt (which I recommend cause it's waaaaay easier then calling native APIs and it's also multi-platform)
Using Qt you can show an input dialog pretty much the same way you do it on java:
bool ok;
QString text = QInputDialog::getText(
"MyApp 3000", "Enter your name:", QLineEdit::Normal,
QString::null, &ok, this );
if ( ok && !text.isEmpty() ) {
// user entered something and pressed OK
} else {
// user entered nothing or pressed Cancel
}
You can download the Qt library here: qt.nokia.com/products/developer-tools/
Microsoft doesn't consider your use case to be common enough to optimize for, as with MessageBox. They expect you to lay out a dialog with many controls on it, perhaps with some complex interaction with the controls, and only respond once the dialog is fully filled in. What you're asking for is just the simplified version of that.
The resource editor is the easiest way to create a dialog, but that's not included in the free Express version of Visual Studio. You would design the dialog with a text control for the prompt and an edit control for the user to fill in. You present the dialog with the DialogBox Windows function, and it returns when the user hits the OK button or the X in the corner of the dialog. Microsoft has some documentation for it here.
There are a few platforms available that try to make the process easier, such as MFC, WTL, Qt, and wx, but this is how you'd do it with the pure Windows API.
My answer is based on Stephen Quan's answer to How to load & call a VBScript function from within C++? Added full UTF-8 support, as you can gather from the code comments in the CPP file. Unlike using Microsoft Script Control to create the InputBox, this can be used in x86 and x64 executables, libraries, and controls.
"inputbox.h":
extern "C" char *InputBox(char *Prompt, char *Title = (char *)"", char *Default = (char *)"");
extern "C" char *PasswordBox(char *Prompt, char *Title = (char *)"", char *Default = (char *)"");
"inputbox.cpp":
#include "inputbox.h"
// Windows API
#include <windows.h>
// VBScript InputBox
#include <atlbase.h>
#include <activscp.h>
#include <comdef.h>
// UTF-8 Support
#include <wchar.h>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
using std::string;
using std::wstring;
using std::vector;
static wstring StringWiden(string Str) {
const size_t wchar_tCount = Str.size() + 1;
vector<wchar_t> Buffer(wchar_tCount);
return wstring { Buffer.data(), (size_t)MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, Str.c_str(), -1, Buffer.data(), wchar_tCount) };
}
static string StringShorten(wstring Str) {
int nBytes = (size_t)WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, Str.c_str(), (int)Str.length(), NULL, 0, NULL, NULL);
vector<char> Buffer((size_t)nBytes);
return string { Buffer.data(), (size_t)WideCharToMultiByte(CP_UTF8, 0, Str.c_str(), (int)Str.length(), Buffer.data(), nBytes, NULL, NULL) };
}
static string StringReplaceAll(string Str, string SubStr, string NewStr) {
size_t Position = 0;
const size_t SubLen = SubStr.length(), NewLen = NewStr.length();
while ((Position = Str.find(SubStr, Position)) != string::npos) {
Str.replace(Position, SubLen, NewStr);
Position += NewLen;
}
return Str;
}
static string CPPNewLineToVBSNewLine(string NewLine) {
size_t Position = 0;
while (Position < NewLine.length()) {
if (NewLine[Position] == '\r' || NewLine[Position] == '\n')
NewLine.replace(Position, 2, "\" + vbNewLine + \"");
Position += 1;
}
return NewLine;
}
class CSimpleScriptSite :
public IActiveScriptSite,
public IActiveScriptSiteWindow {
public:
CSimpleScriptSite() : m_cRefCount(1), m_hWnd(NULL) { }
// IUnknown
STDMETHOD_(ULONG, AddRef)();
STDMETHOD_(ULONG, Release)();
STDMETHOD(QueryInterface)(REFIID riid, void** ppvObject);
// IActiveScriptSite
STDMETHOD(GetLCID)(LCID* plcid) { *plcid = 0; return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(GetItemInfo)(LPCOLESTR pstrName, DWORD dwReturnMask, IUnknown** ppiunkItem, ITypeInfo** ppti) { return TYPE_E_ELEMENTNOTFOUND; }
STDMETHOD(GetDocVersionString)(BSTR* pbstrVersion) { *pbstrVersion = SysAllocString(L"1.0"); return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(OnScriptTerminate)(const VARIANT* pvarResult, const EXCEPINFO* pexcepinfo) { return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(OnStateChange)(SCRIPTSTATE ssScriptState) { return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(OnScriptError)(IActiveScriptError* pIActiveScriptError) { return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(OnEnterScript)(void) { return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(OnLeaveScript)(void) { return S_OK; }
// IActiveScriptSiteWindow
STDMETHOD(GetWindow)(HWND* phWnd) { *phWnd = m_hWnd; return S_OK; }
STDMETHOD(EnableModeless)(BOOL fEnable) { return S_OK; }
// Miscellaneous
STDMETHOD(SetWindow)(HWND hWnd) { m_hWnd = hWnd; return S_OK; }
public:
LONG m_cRefCount;
HWND m_hWnd;
};
STDMETHODIMP_(ULONG) CSimpleScriptSite::AddRef() {
return InterlockedIncrement(&m_cRefCount);
}
STDMETHODIMP_(ULONG) CSimpleScriptSite::Release() {
if (!InterlockedDecrement(&m_cRefCount)) {
delete this;
return 0;
}
return m_cRefCount;
}
STDMETHODIMP CSimpleScriptSite::QueryInterface(REFIID riid, void **ppvObject)
{
if (riid == IID_IUnknown || riid == IID_IActiveScriptSiteWindow) {
*ppvObject = (IActiveScriptSiteWindow*)this;
AddRef();
return NOERROR;
}
if (riid == IID_IActiveScriptSite) {
*ppvObject = (IActiveScriptSite*)this;
AddRef();
return NOERROR;
}
return E_NOINTERFACE;
}
static HHOOK hHook = 0;
static bool HideInput = false;
static LRESULT CALLBACK InputBoxProc(int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam) {
if (nCode < HC_ACTION)
return CallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
if (nCode = HCBT_ACTIVATE) {
if (HideInput == true) {
HWND TextBox = FindWindowExA((HWND)wParam, NULL, "Edit", NULL);
SendDlgItemMessageW((HWND)wParam, GetDlgCtrlID(TextBox), EM_SETPASSWORDCHAR, L'\x25cf', 0);
}
}
if (nCode = HCBT_CREATEWND) {
if (!(GetWindowLongPtr((HWND)wParam, GWL_STYLE) & WS_CHILD))
SetWindowLongPtr((HWND)wParam, GWL_EXSTYLE, GetWindowLongPtr((HWND)wParam, GWL_EXSTYLE) | WS_EX_DLGMODALFRAME);
}
return CallNextHookEx(hHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
}
static char *InputBoxHelper(char *Prompt, char *Title, char *Default) {
// Initialize
HRESULT hr = S_OK;
hr = CoInitialize(NULL);
CSimpleScriptSite* pScriptSite = new CSimpleScriptSite();
CComPtr<IActiveScript> spVBScript;
CComPtr<IActiveScriptParse> spVBScriptParse;
hr = spVBScript.CoCreateInstance(OLESTR("VBScript"));
hr = spVBScript->SetScriptSite(pScriptSite);
hr = spVBScript->QueryInterface(&spVBScriptParse);
hr = spVBScriptParse->InitNew();
// Replace quotes with double quotes
string strPrompt = StringReplaceAll(Prompt, "\"", "\"\"");
string strTitle = StringReplaceAll(Title, "\"", "\"\"");
string strDefault = StringReplaceAll(Default, "\"", "\"\"");
// Create evaluation string
string Evaluation = "InputBox(\"" + strPrompt + "\", \"" + strTitle + "\", \"" + strDefault + "\")";
Evaluation = CPPNewLineToVBSNewLine(Evaluation);
wstring WideEval = StringWiden(Evaluation);
// Run InpuBox
CComVariant result;
EXCEPINFO ei = {};
DWORD ThreadID = GetCurrentThreadId();
HINSTANCE ModHwnd = GetModuleHandle(NULL);
hr = pScriptSite->SetWindow(GetAncestor(GetActiveWindow(), GA_ROOTOWNER));
hHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_CBT, &InputBoxProc, ModHwnd, ThreadID);
hr = spVBScriptParse->ParseScriptText(WideEval.c_str(), NULL, NULL, NULL, 0, 0, SCRIPTTEXT_ISEXPRESSION, &result, &ei);
UnhookWindowsHookEx(hHook);
// Cleanup
spVBScriptParse = NULL;
spVBScript = NULL;
pScriptSite->Release();
pScriptSite = NULL;
CoUninitialize();
// Result
static string strResult;
_bstr_t bstrResult = (_bstr_t)result;
strResult = StringShorten((wchar_t*)bstrResult);
return (char*)strResult.c_str();
}
char *InputBox(char *Prompt, char *Title, char *Default) {
HideInput = false;
return InputBoxHelper(Prompt, Title, Default);
}
char *PasswordBox(char *Prompt, char *Title, char *Default) {
HideInput = true;
return InputBoxHelper(Prompt, Title, Default);
}
Create the two above files and then add them to your Visual Studio project.
In any file you want the input or password box functions, (found in the header), simply include the header:
#include "inputbox.h"
// use functions here
I also got rid of the default Windows application icon in the title bar of the VBScript InputBox, because a lot of people I've seen complain about how ugly it is to see that there.
Let me know if you have any questions.
I have to admit that I haven't really done much in the way of input boxes in ages, but you basically have to go outside C++ in order to get any kind of graphical input box. There's simply no mechanism built into the language for that kind of stuff for portability reasons. I don't remember if it applied to C++ as well, but C doesn't even assume you have a console. Anyway, your best bet would be something along the lines you were already trying: Win32 API, Qt, etc. If you can use the console, however, feel free to just use the iostream library to get the job done.
Using a console window is better suited to the mode of communication where a program prompts the user, continues, prompts the user again, and so on.
And for that you can use the standard library's facilities like cin and cout.
Unlike Visual Basic and other languages, there is no "built in" Input Box like command in c++. Unlike MessageBox that can be just invoked, InputBox() needs to be written. In fact, I have done so. The following article describes how to implement such InputBox as part of a small Static Library that can be used, with no Resources, from any Win32 c++ program. Source code at Github. It can be used as follow:
LPWSTR GetString(LPCTSTR szCaption, LPCTSTR szPrompt, LPCTSTR szDefaultText = L"");
For example:
LPWSTR result = SG_InputBox::GetString(
L"Code Project Demo",
L"What is your name");
try this:
InputBox in c++ vs2010
#include "stdafx.h"
#using <system.windows.forms.dll>
#using <Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll>
using namespace System;
int main(array<System::String ^> ^args)
{
Microsoft::VisualBasic::Interaction::InputBox(L"Hello", L"Title", L"DefResp", 500, 500);
return 0;
}

MFC Open Folder Dialog

In MFC, is there an Open Folder Dialog? That is, rather than choosing a filename, it chooses a folder name? Ideally, I'd like it to be the way Visual Studio does it when navigating for a "Project Location" (when creating a new project), which looks very much like a normal file dialog. But I could make do with one of the vertical tree sort of interfaces if the former doesn't exist.
This code will get you a open folder dialog (this was taken from somewhere on the web but I don't really know where).
CString szSelectedFolder = _T("");
// This is the recommended way to select a directory
// in Win95 and NT4.
BROWSEINFO bi;
memset((LPVOID)&bi, 0, sizeof(bi));
TCHAR szDisplayName[_MAX_PATH];
szDisplayName[0] = '\0';
bi.hwndOwner = GetSafeHwnd();
bi.pidlRoot = NULL;
bi.pszDisplayName = szDisplayName;
bi.lpszTitle = _T("Select a folder");
bi.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS;
// Set the callback function
bi.lpfn = BrowseCallbackProc;
LPITEMIDLIST pIIL = ::SHBrowseForFolder(&bi);
TCHAR szReturnedDir[_MAX_PATH];
BOOL bRet = ::SHGetPathFromIDList(pIIL, (TCHAR*)&szReturnedDir);
if (bRet)
{
if (szReturnedDir != _T(""))
{
szSelectedFolder = szReturnedDir;
}
LPMALLOC pMalloc;
HRESULT HR = SHGetMalloc(&pMalloc);
pMalloc->Free(pIIL);
pMalloc->Release();
}
you'll also have to implement this callback function:
TCHAR szInitialDir[_MAX_PATH];
// Set the initial path of the folder browser
int CALLBACK BrowseCallbackProc(HWND hWnd, UINT uMsg, LPARAM lParam, LPARAM lpData)
{
// Look for BFFM_INITIALIZED
if (uMsg == BFFM_INITIALIZED)
{
SendMessage(hWnd, BFFM_SETSELECTION, TRUE, (LPARAM)szInitialDir);
}
return 0;
}